A new research report from Berg Insight expects shipments of consumer-focussed M2M devices to increase from 5.3 million worldwide last year to 13.8 million in 2017. That’s a compound annual growth rate of 21.1%.
The report excludes mobile phone handsets, PCs, tablets and commercial M2M equipment from its list of mobile-enabled devices. It notes that eBook readers and personal navigation devices are the most common consumer M2M devices, already shipping in millions.
Personal tracking, wearable technology and digital cameras are all noted as having high growth potential, although Berg Insight predicts that smart watches will be the most-sold consumer M2M device category by 2017. They’ll account for 23% of annual shipments, followed by 17% for personal tracking devices. Currently the 3G-connected Amazon Kindle reader is the most-sold consumer M2M device to date.
Johan Svanberg, Senior Analyst at Berg Insight, said “There are already over 15 million consumer M2M devices in use worldwide. Business innovation from device vendors, content service providers and telecom operators is now necessary in order to turn M2M consumer devices into a mainstream success. A seamless integrated offering without any complicated subscription models has been key to the success. It is not always possible to hide the cost of data such as in the case of the Kindle, but the relationship between the benefits and costs need to be both clear and fair in order for users to be willing to pay extra for wireless data.”
[Report brochure (pdf)]